Press | Umweltbundesamt

Since a short time ago, businesses have had an obligation to report on substances that pose a certain risk to mankind and the environment. The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) has for the first time published a list of substances of very high concern. Reasons for inclusion are that the substnaces are: carcinogenic, mutagenic, or toxic for reproduction, and the list also includes persistent, bioacc... read more

Is there a higher incidence of heat waves and severe weather in Europe? How much are the sea levels in Europe rising? How does climate change impact man, plants, and animals? The answers to this are provided in Impacts of Europe’s changing climate - 2008 indicator based assessment report, which the European Environment Agency (EEA) issued yesterday in Copenhagen, Denmark. It confirms that the clim... read more

Protect the climate with carbon dioxide-sounds like a contradiction? It may at first seem paradoxical to want to protect the climate with a greenhouse gas, but this is not so in the case of refrigerants used in mobile air conditioning systems.  In fact, carbon dioxide (CO2) is an ecological alternative to the refrigerant tetrafluoroethane commonly used to date. CO2 harms the climate up to 1,300 ti... read more

German companies are the global leaders in the environmental protection market. With a global trade share of 16 per cent and an export volume of 56 billion euros in 2006, Germany landed first place again, ahead of the USA (15 per cent) and Japan (9 per cent). These are the results of a research project carried out by Lower Saxony’s Institute for Economic Research on behalf of the Federal Environme... read more

The Federal Environment Agency (UBA) is supporting the „klima on- s´cooltour 2008/09” campaign launched by the Lightcycle company. School-age children are competing in a project contest to develop creative solutions to climate and environmental problems. Anyone in the fifth class through to those taking A-levels can participate. These young people decide on their own whether to design their projec... read more

Supermarket refrigeration systems that contain natural halogen-free refrigerants are the most climate-friendly of all technologies currently available for the purpose. These are the findings of Comparative assessment of the climate relevance of supermarket refrigeration systems and equipment research project, which was presented and discussed by over 50 experts at a conference held on 5 September... read more

The Federal Environment Agency (UBA) will have a booth at the Consumer Electronics Fair (IFA), held from 29 August to 3 September in Berlin. UBA will provide information about stand-by losses in electronic consumer and entertainment devices and how to limit the losses and save electricity. One four-person household consumes an average 3,600 kilowatt hours per year, of which 440 kilowatt hours are... read more

Unborn children and infants often react differently-- in many cases considerably more sensitively- than do adults or older children to pollutants, radiation or other environmental influences. They are sometimes particularly exposed to the harmful effects of passive smoking or poor indoor air quality. So what can expectant mothers and parents of young children really do to protect their infants and... read more